


Nighthawk

by Darklions3429



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I'm Bad At Tagging, Romance, Slow Burn, first real fanfiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2020-04-05 21:28:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19048777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darklions3429/pseuds/Darklions3429
Summary: After the success of the NerveGear and Sword Art Online, a new company rose up and took the challenge of making an upgrade to the already revolutionary NerveGear. With the packaged game ALO, Kazuto Kirigaya, otherwise known as Kirito, dives into a new world, but discovers that it holds a dark secret. Will he be able to make it out, or will he die trying? (garbage summary but I'll rework it if/when I finish this thing)





	1. Chapter 1

In his ears, he could hear the wind rustling vegetation, the chirping of birds, and the chatter of people as they walked by, discussing their plans for the day. As he sat in the grass, he could feel the earth beneath him, his hand wadding up a fistful of the green foliage as he sat up, feeling the earthy texture beneath it and each individual blade. He raised his head, and his eyes were greeted with the friendly gaze of the sun, tenderly caressing the area with its gentle warmth, sending a shiver down his spine. Standing and stretching, he took a deep breath, smelling the faint scents of earth, grass, and leaves, with the wind carrying the soft fragrances into his nose. Sighing, he checked the time and did a two finger swipe, navigated through the menu and tapped “Log Out”.

 

Kazuto Kirigaya, otherwise known as “Kirito”, sat up in his bed and exhaled. The sun was streaming through the window and casting a warm and sleepy light that gently shook his room awake with a soft, ambient glow. Looking again at the clock as he took off his NerveGear, he lazily rolled himself out of bed and dragged his feet towards his bedroom door and toward the bathroom.  _Did I really fall asleep in FullDive? I should do that more often…_

Ever since the novelty of Virtual Reality was first conceived, no one ever thought it would be possible to fully immerse oneself into a world where whatever you reached for, touched, saw, heard, tasted, or smelled could actually be sensed as such. But Argus took that as a challenge.

After a whole decade of development, Argus developed and produce a device that anyone could buy that would accomplish what tech geeks could only dream of: the NerveGear. The NerveGear did what Neil Armstrong did, what America’s Founding Fathers did, and what we all hope to do: achieve the impossible. The NerveGear could send brain waves that could mimic the five senses, as well as it could receive the user’s brainwaves to simulate movement inside of a given world. Coupled with the co-developed game Sword Art Online, the NerveGear was a technological revolution that swept the masses. Very quickly, this technology flooded storefronts and homes alike, and soon everyone was in FullDive, as they had called it, experiencing a whole new world.

Sword Art Online was a different sensation in and of itself. For the first time, the masses could experience what it was like to wield a metal sword and fight other people and the monsters that infested that world. 100 floors worth of content later, and SAO was beaten, yet thousands of people still play the game simply out of enjoyment. But, trends come and go, and people were ready for a new way to experience FullDive.

Suguha was at Kendo practice, so he was sitting at the kitchen table and tiredly crunching on cereal. Kazuto browsed tech forums on his phone with low expectations of anything new. That was until he refreshed the page and a new post popped up at the top of the forum, posted about a day or so before. Kazuto’s eyes scanned the text and tapped the link to a webpage for CloudNine Games, the team behind the alleged new FullDive technology: the VirtuVisor. Kazuto shoveled the rest of his off-brand Cheerios in his mouth and dumped the bowl in the sink then flew upstairs to his computer.

Pulling up Toogle Titanium, he typed in “CloudNine Games VirtuVisor”, clicked on the first link, and there it was, in all of its glory. Ditching the clunky and mildly uncomfortable design of the full helmet of the NerveGear, the VirtuVisor boasted a sleek new design, resembling that of a halo around the user’s head. There was a translucent, cream-colored screen on the front end of the halo, which was advertised as augmented reality ready. The rest of the body was a soft white and was lightweight, made of a strong yet comfortable plastic-aluminum polymer, and was secured to one’s head with a one-size-fits-all adjustable headband. In comparison to the NerveGear, it offered significantly less input lag, faster connection times, higher resolution world models, more stable connections, more sensory input and output options, and so much more. Only 20,000 were available for pre-order, due to the VirtuVisor still being quite experimental, and a large, green button hung below the product page and read “Pre-order now!”. Quickly pulling up his bank account, Kazuto checked if his bank account could afford to take the 80,000 Yen hit. Satisfied that there was enough cushion below that (he had worked backbreaking hours in the preceding months), Kazuto tabbed back to the store page and clicked on the looming green button. An order confirmation page loaded up, and Kazuto hurriedly plugged in his bank information. An anxious feeling washed over his body as he clicked confirm. He prayed to every god he could think of, and when the order receipt page came up, he nervously glanced over it. “Congratulations! You were order #14,659! Your console will arrive within 2-3 weeks. Thank you for your investment!” Sitting back in his chair, he sighed a breath of relief. He was one of the lucky people that got to use the new VirtuVisor along with its debut game, Alfheim Online, or ALO for short.

For the next few weeks, Kazuto couldn’t concentrate. He was thinking about the VirtuVisor, about ALO, non-stop. His grades had dropped a couple of points as he couldn’t concentrate in class, which was a stark contrast to the usual. His knee bounced in class, and his eyes were always glancing at the clock, only to be met with the saddening reality that five seconds of not looking at the clock only moves it forward five seconds. He was always on the internet, checking his email for a delivery receipt and news about the VirtuVisor. That was, in all honesty, not the greatest idea, because it only made him more anxious and more distracted. In SAO, it wasn’t much better. Questing was a drag because he couldn’t concentrate on anything, and he kept dying in the middle of fights. When it came down to the “clutch or kick”, Kazuto typically felt the swift impact of a boot in his ass. So, Kazuto decided to call it quits on VR for a while. Or, at least until the VirtuVisor came rolling into the mail. At the dinner table, Suguha was fed up, having not talked to Kazuto in literal days.

“Alright, what’s up with you? You look like you’ve injected enough liquid caffeine into your thigh to drown a small dog,” Suguha questioned, a little annoyed as she set her fork down. Kazuto scratched his head sheepishly and laughed.

“Yeah, sorry. There’s a new VR console coming out pretty soon that I pre-ordered and I’m super excited about it. I’m one of 20,000 people that get it right off the bat, and I’ve been distracted for the past week now.”

“Jeez dude, that’s kinda lucky. Well, if you’re so distracted then, go swim or something. Lose yourself in your own thoughts, that’s what it’s for. I do it all the time, especially after I finish a show or something,” Suguha said, her expression softening.

“Well, the difference is, is the fact that you won’t shut up about it for like a month. I haven’t said a word to bother you at all,” Kazuto weakly retorted.

Well, the difference is, you’re a hermit, I’m not,” Suguha scoffed.

“I- What’re you talking about? I hang out with friends all the time!”

“Give me one in the past month.”

“Well, I mean, there was, uh…” Kazuto trailed off.

“My point exactly,” Suguha snickered, setting her fork down on her empty plate. Kazuto breathed a defeated sigh and considered her suggestion.

“I think I’ll take you up on that offer. How much was it for the pool again? I haven’t been there in forever.”

“You can just take my punch card, I have a couple of passes left on it. I don’t think I’ll be using it for a while, kendo has me a little preoccupied for a while.”

“That’s right, you have a tournament coming up here in a little bit. Thanks, Sugu.”

Suguha rummaged through her bag and pulled out her wallet, taking out a small card and flicked it across the table towards Kazuto. “Yeah, no problem.”

Inspecting it, Kazuto saw that there was a line of numbers from 1 through 10, and 1 through 4 were scribbled out. “Oh yeah, and once you finish the tenth one, you get the eleventh for free.”

“Very cool, thanks Sugu.”

“That’s such an old meme.”

“Shut up,” Kazuto laughed as he ruffled Suguha’s hair before he left upstairs for the night. He had some classwork to catch up on.

 

The next day, Kazuto came home, stomach still jumping like a hyena on cocaine. Suguha was still at school and wouldn’t be back for a little while, so Kazuto decided to gather his swimming stuff and head to the pool. He had been on the swim team a while back, so he had a pair of jammers, a swim cap, and racing goggles already. He wondered how he’d do after not having swum for almost a year. Scribbling out a note for Sugu for when she came back, he grabbed his keys and helmet off of the counter and rode off on his motorcycle towards the pool.

Riding his motorcycle was one of his other pleasures in life, aside from gaming. He loved the feeling of air rushing past and around him as he sped down the highway. He could take any number of backroads, as his cycle was small enough to fit into almost any alleyway he wanted. Almost. As he rode on, he watched the world rush past him, he flew past his high school, his old kendo dojo, and past the park with more couples making out than he would’ve liked. Before he knew it, he had pulled up to the pool parking lot where he parked his bike in the nearest open spot.

Kazuto walked into the lobby and got his card marked off and went into the locker room to change, which was laden with naked old men and fathers trying to wrangle their hellspawn. After pushing his way (awkwardly) out of the locker room, he turned the corner to run face first into a girl. Kazuto stumbled back onto the dry entranceway into the locker room and the girl did much the same, except that she, unfortunately, went backward onto the wet pool deck, slipped, and fell backward, her elbow breaking her fall. Gathering himself, he looked toward the petite coffee-haired girl and rushed over to help her up, picking up her glasses off the ground as he did so. She and her green one-piece swimsuit was soaked as she had just finished swimming, which probably didn’t help for traction.

“Hey, are you alright? You took a pretty hard spill there…”

The girl put on her glasses, shrank and muttered out “Y-yeah, I’m fi-” before wincing and grabbing her elbow. Upon removing her hand, she discovered that she was bleeding from her elbow.She drew in a sharp breath before falling forward at the sight of her red-stained palm toward Kazuto, who caught her by the armpits and grunted at the unexpected weight.

“I’ll take that as a no, you’re not okay,” Kazuto grimaced as he brought her to her feet again. She leaned against Kazuto as she clutched her elbow.

“I’m gonna walk you to the lifeguard, is that alright?”

‘Mhm’, she whimpered, as the pair of them slowly made their way over to the lifeguard chair. Upon arrival, the lifeguard pulled out some gauze from her hip-pack and told the girl to put pressure on her elbow, and roller-taped the gauze to her elbow. The lifeguard sent the two off, and Kazuto helped her to the girl’s locker room. He stopped before the door, and the girl looked at Kazuto with consideration. Kazuto opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by a small murmur.

“Th- thank you…”

“Oh yeah, it’s not a problem. Just clean it up and stuff when you get home, okay?”

“Alright…”

Kazuto again opened his mouth, this time to ask her name, but before he could do so, the coffee-haired girl’s face flushed red and she quickly shuffled her way into the locker room, leaving Kazuto in a mildly confused daze.  _Damn, that’s like the third one this month. I suck at women._ Kazuto promptly turned around and walked to a lane, as he was getting some weird looks from the other patrons after a girl basically just ran into the locker room, with him staring into said locker room. He dove in and lost himself in the cool rush of water for the next hour.

 

Over the next two weeks, Kazuto swam at the pool almost everyday. And everyday, he found that same, coffee-colored haired girl walking from the pool deck into the locker room, and everyday, he greeted her with a friendly smile. For a few days, his greeting was returned with a quiet murmur of “hello”, but over the course of two weeks, she went from a murmur to a low mumble, which finally evolved to a smile and a return wave.

The last day before the VirtuVisor arrived, however, was quite different than the rest. The girl was coming out of the locker room for once, perhaps she had been late. Nevertheless, Kazuto greeted her warmly and she returned the greeting. As Kazuto put his stuff down by usual lane, the girl watched him, seemingly gazing right through his soul. Approaching him, she set down her stuff at the lane next to Kazuto’s, and began to speak.

“You know, I’ve been kind of curious.”

Surprised to hear her speak more than one word, Kazuto was a little startled and turned around to face her. “I-what’s up?”

“You don’t know me at all, have never talked to me in my, or your life, yet you still make an effort to be nice to me. Why?” she asked, shifting her weight onto one hip with her hand going with it.

Kazuto was at a loss for words.  _Jeez, going for the throat._  “I- well, you needed help that one day, and I guess I feel kind of a connection with people I help? I-I don’t know, I’ve never really thought about it…”

Raising an eyebrow, the girl considered his answer. “Fascinating,” she said, slipping on her goggles and diving into the pool. Kazuto yet again opened his mouth to ask her name, but all he got was the sound of a body gliding into the water as a response. Sighing, he slipped on his own goggles and cap, then followed suit and dove into the water himself. He noticed that she was quite fast, so he took it upon himself to race her. By the end of the hour, Kazuto exited the pool and was panting quite heavily, and judging by the heavy breathing next to him, the girl had done much of the same as he did.

“I…” Kazuto started in between pants, “I’ve tried to ask your name twice now, but you’ve ran away from me before I even say anything.”

She looked back at him and processed his statement for a second. “What? Oh, sorry. My name’s Asada. Shino Asada.”

“Nice to meet you Asada-san. I’m Kazuto Kirigaya.” He held out his hand and she took it with a surprisingly firm handshake.

“Likewise.”

 “Just out of curiosity, why are you here pretty much everyday?”

Shino paused as if she was caught off-guard by the question. “Uh… therapy. You?”  
“I’m just here to relax. My kid sister was on me about my brain running like a broken faucet, so she threw me her punch card and now I’m here.”

“Gotcha,” she said as she took her phone out of her bag to check the time. “Listen, I’d love to chat a little bit more, but I have to go. See you tomorrow?”

“Sure! See ya tomorrow,” he said as he threw a wave behind his back, walking into the locker room. A ‘see you’ came from around the corner of the girl’s locker room entrance as the both of them disappeared into the locker room to change.

 

The following day, Kazuto arrived home to Suguha sitting on the couch, lazily changing channels. Hanging his keys up on the nearby key hook, Kazuto said ‘hi’ to Suguha before noticing a medium-sized box sitting on the counter. “Hey Kazu, package came in for y-” Suguha started before her words were cut off by Kazuto snatching the box off of the counter and blasting upstairs with a faint “Thanks Sugu!” floating down the stairs preceding a door slam. Shifting in her seat, Suguha sighed to herself and shook her head.  _I have a strong feeling I won’t be seeing him for a while,_  she thought, chuckling to herself.

Up in Kazuto’s room, his hands were shaking as he gently set the box on his bed. He opened his desk drawer and took out a box cutter, carefully piercing the tape and allowing the blade to glide across it. Upon opening the box, Kazuto’s stomach lurched with anticipation as he saw a small advertisement pamphlet with the CloudNine Games logo on it on top of a piece of protective styrofoam. He tossed that aside and took off the styrofoam and revealed a headband. The VirtuVisor. Kazuto’s heart began racing as he took it out and lifted another layer of styrofoam that covered the wires, instructions, and various other miscellaneous parts, as well as the star of the show: ALO. Taking out the wires, he noticed that they were very similar to the ones used for the NerveGear, and he swiftly plugged in the necessary wires, plugged it into the wall, and plugged the bundle of wires into his computer. The VirtuVisor was capable of holding a charge and had a computer capable of massive amounts of information storage, so one could lie down anywhere and enter FullDive.

As Kazuto waited for the VirtuVisor to gain a decent charge, he inserted the disc for ALO and waited for the installation wizard to pop up. He followed all the steps and after 20 minutes, the entire game was installed both on his computer and the VirtuVisor. The indicator light glowed green, which signalled a usable charge, and Kazuto slipped it on. Lying down on his bed, he adjusted the headband to be comfortable as he laid down (although it wouldn’t really matter anyways) and relaxed his entire body, heart still racing, butterflies flying around his stomach at Mach 4, and brain still pumping out massive doses of adrenaline. Not wanting to wait any longer before he exploded from giddiness, he took a breath and spoke the famous command: “Link Start!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kirito meets a new friend, and discovers ALO's dark secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, I got lazy, haha
> 
> That aside, here it is! I wasn't sure where to take this chapter, but hey, it worked out anyways. Anyways, I hope that the next update won't be too far from now. I hoped you enjoyed reading, and comment constructive criticism! Thanks for sticking it out with me.

 

“Link Start!”

  
  


A flurry of colored pillars rushed passed Kazuto’s consciousness and a startup screen appeared, making various connection checks, and everything was a go. His vision faded, and out popped a login screen. He looked down and realized that his body had become tangible. Having already made an account with the installation wizard, he plugged in his account credentials using the digital keyboard in front of him. Another screen followed it, prompting him to enter his desired username. Not knowing what else to put down, he typed in his go-to: “Kirito”, an amalgamation of his first and last name. Another loading screen followed, and he finally saw the lush landscapes that he had been dreaming of flying through. Before he could explore it however, he had to pick a race. In front of him was a rotating roster of each of the races in ALO, Cait Sith, Gnome, Imp, Leprechaun, Pooka, Salamander, Spriggan, Sylph, and Undine. Scrolling through, none of the races stood out to him, save for the Spriggan, with their treasure hunting and illusion magic. Tapping the confirm button, he was taken to a character creation screen. Being eager to get into the game, he tapped the option to make a character based off of himself. Again tapping the confirm button, he was quickly swept into a cinematic loading screen, giving him a sweeping view of the entire map from afar.

The camera panned across the entire island, and Kirito could almost smell the seafoam crashing up against the shore, the wind rustling through the vegetation, and the warmth of the sun beaming across the landmass. Kirito thought he was going to fry his VirtuVisor with how excited he was. The next 30 seconds of loading felt like the longest of his life. When he finally set foot on the ground in the Ruins City, he thought he was going to pass out right then and there. While the graphics in SAO were absolutely stellar, ALO was a whole different experience in and of itself. As he took his first steps in ALO, he could feel the difference in the ground under his shoes as he walked. Bending down to a nearby grass patch, he picked out an individual grass blade and examined it up close. Looking at that single blade of grass, he could see each of the tendons of the grass running down the length of it. Flicking it away, he did a two-finger swipe and the menu dropped down from seemingly nowhere.

Kirito noticed that he had very bare bones starting equipment and 500 Gil. His sword only allowed him to deal as much damage as his attack was, and his leather armor increased his health by 5 points, making his total health a whopping 30 points. Walking into the main temple area, he drew in a breath as he saw the true vastness of the city. There were dozens of shops with hundreds of NPC’s meandering the streets. Noting how dim the place actually was, he entered the main area and saw truly how detailed each NPC was. Everyone was unique, with their faces seemingly having an entire lifetime’s worth of character depth. He saw NPC’s in taverns drinking and laughing. He saw NPC’s in entertainment venues dancing and jesting. He saw shopkeepers haggling with customers to raise or lower their price. Kirito stood in awe at how… human everything was. It seemed like a believable, tangible place out in the real world.

Stopping at a beginner’s general shop, he poked around to see what he could buy for 500 Gil but was severely disappointed when the most he could buy was a loaf of bread and 5 health potions. His purse 300 Gil lighter, he navigated his way out of the city, eager to start questing and hunting monsters. Feeling his sword materialize on his back, he drew it and ran out into the world.

Before he even got two steps into the forest, he saw another player whizz by overhead. He had almost forgotten. He could fly! Now to figure out how. He flipped through some menus to no avail but having seen the wings on the characters on the box art of the game, he tried a different approach. Arching his shoulder blades, he concentrated on trying to feel wings on his back and to his surprise it worked! Suddenly on his back, he had a pair of black, translucent wings on his back that seemingly ate up the light from the sun. A breeze gently blew past and he could feel the delicate touch of the wind on his newly formed wings. In his hand appeared a small joystick. Pulling it towards him to inspect it further, he noticed his wings flex a little bit as he flexed his arm to bring the joystick closer to his face. Pursuing that thought further, he reached out and he lurched forward as his wings flapped heavily. Looking at the joystick, Kirito was suddenly reminded of a pilot’s joystick. He tilted it back out of curiosity and he found himself levitating off the ground. He let out a whoop of success as he tilted the joystick back even further, feeling his wings carry his weight up into the air. Punching forward with his right hand, he jetted forward and felt for the first time the wind rushing past his face as he sped off into the forest. 

When he found a place to stop, he immediately encountered a problem. How the hell was he supposed to land? Looking down, his stomach dropped the full 100-meter height he was off the ground. Considering his options, he slowly tilted the flight controller forward and felt himself lowering from the sky. All was well until his hand suddenly jerked forward to overcompensate and tasted the true extent of ALO’s VR engine as he got a faceful of dirt.Standing up and brushing himself off, he looked around and checked to see if there was anyone watching and to his relief, there was not. Drawing his sword, he got a shudder down his spine, remembering how good combat felt in SAO. Running farther into the forest, he scanned for enemies to cut down.

His head snapped towards a rustle in the grass, and a woodlands boar stepped through. Kirito made eye contact with the wild boar, and almost immediately the boar was aggro’d onto Kirito, a red indicator line coming from the boar shooting towards Kirito. Stepping forward, Kirito raised his sword arm up and to the right. His blade began to seemingly suck in light, charging it as it began to glow light blue. Kirito picked up speed and with a forceful, downward diagonal strike, his sword hissed through the air and cut through the boar, reducing its health down to a quarter of what it was, finishing the level one sword skill «Slant». Whirling his sword around, Kirito made one final diagonal strike from the left and the sword came crashing through the boar’s skull, reducing its health to zero and making the boar squeal and glow a bright blue before exploding into polygons. Kirito glanced up into the top left of his view and saw that a small blue bar below his health counter had filled about a quarter of the way. Feeling invigorated, Kirito ran forward, deeper into the forest, searching for more unlucky enemies to meet with his blade.

 

No more than half an hour had passed, and Kirito found himself at a small clearing, complete with god rays from the bright sun, blooming flowers, and a warm breeze sweeping through the small hill. Having reached level 4, Kirito made a split second decision and climbed to the top of the hill where he laid back and closed his eyes, soaking up the virtual warmth of the sun. Before he got a chance to relax, however, near the outskirts of the clearing, he heard a distressed shout. Looking up, he saw a tall man clad in red running away from boars. Sighing, Kirito stood up and sauntered over to the player, the player’s inexperience glaringly obvious. With a swift «Slant», Kirito cut through all four boars hounding the poor man.

“Thank you so much! I thought I was gonna die!” 

Shrugging, Kirito threw back “ah, it’s not that big of a deal.” 

Still in shock and awe, the man took Kirito by the shoulders. “How did you do that sword glow-y thing?! My regular sword hits take a million shots to kill one stupid boar!”

If the man’s inexperience wasn’t so much as obvious as it was earlier, it certainly punched Kirito in the face now. “Do… do you not know what a sword skill is?”

“...no?”

“Have you ever played SAO?”

“No, why?”

“That explains… a lot. Hold on a sec, I’ll show ya.”

Sighing, Kirito unsheathed his sword and took a basic stance, poising his sword, ready to strike. “Follow along,” Kirito instructed. The man nodded thoughtfully and mimicked Kirito’s stance, raising his sword along with it.

“Alright, now watch my sword,” Kirito said as it began to glow blue. “Do you see how it’s glowing?” Stunned, the red-clad man nodded and tried to replicate the glow to no avail. “In order to get your sword to glow”, Kirito continued as he put his sword down, “you have to kind of just feel the sword charging up.” The man furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“I don’t get it.”

“Have you ever seen in like an anime or something a person charging up a punch, and you can see some particles just fly into their hand?” Kirito said as the man nodded slowly. “All you gotta do is just kind of imagine how that would feel, except instead of your arm, it’s your sword.”

The man blinked at Kirito, shrugged, and turned to face forward. Taking up the stance again, the man raised his sword, and began to assume a look of concentration. Within moments, the man’s sword began to glow a familiar blue, a faint  _ whirring  _ sound accompanying it. The man gasped and looked at Kirito and excitedly exclaimed “I did it! Now what?!” 

“Now just start your swing. The system will do the rest for you.”

Turning back and resetting, the man once again raised his sword and began to concentrate. With a mighty diagonal slash, the glowing blue sword hissed through the air, creating an air current that parted the foliage around the two players, finalizing «Slant», the first sword skill in the game. “Woah! That was awesome! I take it there’s a lot more of these sword skills, right?” 

Chuckling, Kirito replied “Oh-ho yeah, there’s a LOT more of these. There’s a lineup for each possible weapon class and each skill one has a unique setup. Memorize all of them and you’ve pretty much won the game. Although, I have no clue what’s happening with the bow, ‘cause it wasn’t in SAO.” 

“That’s super cool… Anyways, thanks for the help! What’s your name?” 

Kirito had just then realized that neither of them had exchanged names. “I’m Kirito, you?”

Taking Kirito’s hand in a firm and hearty handshake, the man grinned and replied. “I’m Klein, nice to meet ya!” Klein exclaimed as he sent Kirito a friend request. “Well, I’m off to level up some more. Thanks again for your help!”

“No problem man, anytime,” Kirito returned, accepting the request.

Kirito turned around to head back up the hill, but then he paused. He brought up the map in his menu and marked the clearing, labeling it as “Sunny Clearing”. Turning back around, he called out to Klein who stopped in his tracks and whipped around. 

“Klein! Do ya mind if I tag along? I have nothing better to do right now.” 

Klein considered Kirito for a moment, and then waved Kirito along. “Sure, let’s go! You’re gonna be the one that saves my ass, alright?”

Laughing, Kirito jogged toward Klein and retorted “not if you get yourself killed first!”

 

An hour passed and they both had gained four levels trekking through the Yggsdrasilian landscape - Kirito was now at level 8 and Klein at level 6. Along the way, some of Klein’s friends had joined the two, and they all formed a small party of 7. As they trekked the path through the outskirts of the Spriggan forest, Kirito noticed some oddly shaped rocks. Scanning the area, he saw a trail formed by more rocks in the surrounding area. Waving the rest of the party to follow, they eventually came upon a statue. It looked to be of a great tree-beast, towering over the forest. The area around the statue was huge. The oddly shaped rocks formed a large circle, with the statue watching from the center, resembling that of an old Roman arena. On the base of the statue was an old plaque that was heavily corroded from centuries of beatings by the weather. There was a simple poem on it that read:

 

Vanquish the old four and make their souls shine,

Upon which I shall come before thee.

First, however, gather the other nine,

And only then can you defeat me.

 

Scratching his head, Kirito pursed his lips and began to think out loud. “Well, this is obviously a boss. Judging by the poem, I’d guess that we’d have to beat four pre-bosses before we can summon this one. But what does it mean by ‘the other nine’?”

Klein rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “When I was making my character, I’m pretty sure I counted nine races to pick from. Maybe we can only beat this guy if we have every race here? I dunno.”

“That seems like something an RPG like this would do.”

“Well, whatever it may be, I have to log out now. I ordered a pizza a while ago and I told them to deliver it around now,” Klein said as he checked the time whilst navigating through a menu.

“That’s fine, I’ll see you around!” Kirito spun on his heel and walked towards the statue to inspect it closer, until Klein’s voice called out to him. 

“Say, Kirito? Where’s the log-out button?”

Confused, Kirito responded slowly. “It… should be in the options part of the menu?”

“Alright, I’m there, but it’s not showing up.”

Pulling up his own menu, he found that he was in a similar predicament. “That’s weird. Well, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I bet that the devs are shitting themselves right now to fix it.”

Klein lightheartedly snorted, and smirked. “Well they’d better fix it fast, I got a pizza that's waiting to get into my stomach.”

Suddenly, Klein’s friends began to look around in shock and awe. “Klein… what’s happening to the sky?”

Kirito and Klein looked up at the once-blue sky to find that it was now a sickly purple, with the clouds swirling ominously overhead, focused around what seemed to be the center of the map. “I-... what? I have no clue. Kirito, got anything to say?”

Before Kirito could open his mouth to respond, all of their feet were suddenly encapsulated by a dark purple vortex, and each of them felt the ground fade away from beneath them, causing them to phase through the floor with a panicked scream. In a split second, all of them rematerialized in the open town square that sat in front of a giant tree. Quickly the town square began to fill up as more and more people began to fade in through the floor of the square. People looked around in panic and fear as the cloud overhead began to swirl faster. Once the last of the population had faded in, the cloud began to swirl downward into a cone, creating a huge mist that clumped together in front of the town center, in front of the giant tree. The mist opened to reveal a hooded figure slowly pushing itself through the opening. The commotion drew to a silence as the figure began to speak.

“My name is Nobuyuki Sugou. Welcome to my world of Alfheim Online. In case you have not noticed, your log-out button is missing. That is intentional. I repeat, that is intentional. If someone tries to log you out outside of the game, your brain will be instantly be destroyed through a high powered microwave scrambling your brain to death coupled with a high voltage shock from the electrodes on the side of the device. Respawning has now been turned off. If you die in game, the same thing will happen to you in real life. Authorities have been notified, and news coverage has been mobilized. The only way to escape this game is to beat the Fairy King Oberon at the top of the World Tree, as seen right in front of you. Good luck, everyone. As of now, please check your inventory. I have placed a gift for you in there.”

 

With those final words, Sugou sank away back into the portal as the sky began to clear up. There was a mass commotion as everyone began to check their inventories to find a small, brown mirror. Equipping it, Kirito held it in his hand as his reflection gazed back at him. Nothing seemed to happen until he looked at Klein. A once red, long-haired man of the age of 20 became a taller, short-brown haired 24 year-old with a five-o’clock shadow on his chin. Very rapidly, the people around Kirito began to change appearances. Skinny avatars gained many pounds, and some female avatars changed to that of male. Slowly but surely, people began to realize the mirror had changed their avatars to what they truly looked like. At a loss for words, Kirito floundered for something to say.

“I-... you look a lot better like that,” he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. 

“I wish I could say the same to you, but you were really lazy with making your avatar, weren’t you?”

Both of them smiled, but those smiles quickly faded as the weight of the situation quickly settled in. Seeing the panic set into Klein’s face, Kirito began to speak, reassuring him.

“Listen. You picked this up really quickly, and I’m really confident that we can stick this out to the end. Here -  Let’s stick together for as long as we can, alright? With your guild and my experience, we can make it really far!”

Taking deep breaths to settle himself, Klein nodded assent. “Alright. Alright. Let’s do that.”

The two men looked at each other and the rest of the group, and nodded. “Alright, let’s get moving. These levels aren’t going to earn themselves!” Klein shouted, rallying his friends and Kirito. With that, the band of 7 people shouted in return, shattering the panicked shroud that had fallen over the crowd as they began to push their way towards NPC shops to get better gear. More and more people began to push and shove their way out of the square, either to go shopping or back out onto the field. Some sat down, trembling, crying. Others just stared ahead in disbelief. Whatever they did, however, they were all in it for the long run. No one knew how long it would take to clear the game. No one knew how to get to the Fairy King. But there is one thing they did know. They knew that they were going to make it out alive, one way or another.


	3. Chapter 3

One month had passed since the day that everyone was sealed in the VR death trap. ALO, once a land of wistful fantasy, full of fairies, magic, and splendor, had been turned into a world haunted by the Grim Reaper at all times. People slowly grew used to it, however. In all different races of the game and in all of their respective areas, people resigned themselves to either beating the game or just trying to live their lives as best as they could. By the end of that month, players had found statues just like the one Kirito had found, and word spread about their locations. Now to find the four bosses to kill before getting to the final one, and that proved to be a much harder challenge than finding the final race boss.

On Kirito’s side of things, he and Klein’s group were well off. Looking around, they were a considerable amount of levels higher than the surrounding population. There was a smattering of players and groups that possessed the same amount of levelage that they had, but they were few and far in between. They were moving quite fast in comparison to a lot of groups, partly due to Kirito’s almost obsessive experience in SAO. By the end of that first month, they could take down field bosses that took an average group about thirty minutes to kill in about ten. Needless to say, they were doing alright.

It was a cloudy day on the one month passing of being locked inside of the VR death game. The rest of the gang had decided to take the day off in Yggdrasil City, but Kirito was close to gaining a level, so he opted to head out into Cait Sith territory to do some grinding on his own. After the party parted ways with an obligatory “be careful” and a hearty clap on the back, Kirito ventured off through the mountains through the Valley of Butterflies. Upon arriving in Cait Sith territory, Kirito flew north toward a heavily wooded plateau overhanging the entranceway from the Valley of Butterflies. Upon arriving, Kirito was immediately greeted by a group of 7 Angered Forest Spirits. Touching down and drawing his Anneal Blade, he began dispatching the Spirits one by one, and with a final spin and wrist flick, the last spirit evaporated into the air, floating away with the breeze.

Scanning the area for more possible threats, Kirito turned on his search skill and began to wander the immediate area carefully. Pushing through a small patch of shrubbery, a set of red highlighted footprints in the dirt entered his line of sight. Looking down the direction of the footprints, Kirito noticed that they continued quite deep into the forest, and the path was surrounded by signs of a struggle. Sensing that someone might be in trouble, Kirito trekked carefully alongside the path, keeping a watchful eye out for any signs of danger. Creeping forward, Kirito picked up a definite travel path created by whatever was running away. He stayed along the path, still keeping his pointed ears open for any signs of the aggressor.

As the forest got denser, Kirito finally heard some aggressive movements coming from two people. Turning off his search skill, he peered through the nearby shrubbery to see two players duking it out. One of them was cloaked in deep, golden robes, with long blonde hair streaming out of it. Around their waist was a simple belt, containing small pouches around the circumference, and Kirito guessed it was for potions and money. The other player was a thin, but small girl with cat ears and short, powder blue hair with two longer strands tied at the sides of her face with ribbons. Her armor was quite standard for an archer, consisting of a cloak, leather breastplate, green leggings, and knee-high boots with the upper lips of the boots folded over. The gold-clad attacker canted a spell, shot her hands forward and launched a volley of bright green spears at the Cait Sith, who promptly rolled to the side, launching two quick arrows at the attacker in retaliation.

The Salamander spellcaster charged forward, hands glowing, when the Cait Sith archer jumped backward aiming at the ground, and fired off a concussive shot, stunning and staggering the Salamander caster. “What the hell did I do to you?!” the Cait Sith shouted from across the small, newly created clearing. Whipping around, the Salamander spellcaster smiled and glowered at the girl opposite her. “There are many people who would pay a pretty penny for your bow,” she growled. “And I’m going to be the one that gets that payday.” With that, the golden cloaked girl began chanting another spell, her hands glowing a bloody crimson color. The Cait Sith girl began to make her escape but was caught in the radius of the spell and was halted to the spot, her life draining very quickly by the second. She attempted to stand up, but the longer that the caster chanted, the stronger the effect became.

Now that Kirito was confident in where his allegiances should lie, he dashed forward out of the bush and reared his sword back behind his head. His sword began glowing red and he leaped forward and swung downward, a sonic boom being produced at the tip of his sword as he finished. He cleaved through the robed girl, who was then promptly knocked backward by the force of the boom created by the «Sonic Leap» that Kirito had made his surprise attack with. Grimacing, the caster chanted a simple attack spell and launched 4 pink bolts from her palms. Having had years worth of experience in SAO, Kirito swiftly deflected the bolts as they came, and even sent one flying back at the caster’s feet, sending her reeling. Kirito took a quick stance and began charging his sword, pointing it forward at his hip. As it began to glow yellow, he immediately charged forward at the caster, who panicked and threw up a defensive barrier spell, sending her flying into the tree behind her as the «Vorpal Strike» made contact with the magical shield.

Gathering herself, she scrambled away, muttering to herself “Screw this, he said there’d be no one here!” As her robe faded into the surroundings, Kirito turned around to check on the blue-haired Cait Sith, who was pulling herself back up from her weakened state. Trotting over to her and kneeling down, he offered her a potion and spoke softly. “Hey, are you okay?” Sitting up and grunting, the girl could only muster a faint ‘mhm’. Taking the potion and drinking it, the girl sighed with relief and looked at her rescuer. She muttered a quiet “thank you” to Kirito and flushed red. “Hey, my name is Kirito, what’s your’s?” She turned even redder and averted her eyes. Squirming for a second, she quickly scrambled to her feet and dashed off into the woods, quickly disappearing into the foliage. “Hey, wait!” Kirito shouted after her, to no avail. “Goddammit.”

Picking himself up, he gazed in the direction the girl ran off to and began to think to himself. “Why do I feel like that’s happened before?” he thought, before shrugging it off. Turning back around, he went back the way he came to resume leveling.

In the woods, the blue-haired girl sat in a nearby tree, panting. “ _That’s… why I don’t run,”_ she thought to herself. From afar, she saw Kirito walk away with his shoulders slumped, and felt a twinge of remorse for the poor guy. “ _I feel like I could’ve told him my name. Although, it’s not like the name ‘Sinon’ is gonna mean anything to him.”_  Standing up on her branch and scanning the path ahead of her, she began to berate herself for acting as she did with Kirito. “ _He friggin’ saved my life! I could’ve at least told him my name and given him a friend request. But nooo, stupid ol’ me is too defensive and embarrassed to even look a boy in the eyes, let alone talk to him. That guy I talked to a month ago was a result of two whole weeks of preparation!...now that I think about it, that guy kinda-”_  Just then, her inner monologue promptly interrupted by a ping on her HUD. In the top-center of her display was a little mail notification and she stopped on a sturdy tree to swipe down in front of her, bringing up the menu. Pulling up her messages, she saw a new one from her friend, Shinkawa Kyouji, otherwise known as Richter.

“Hey, Sinon!

I’m in Freelia today at the Furry Flagon. I’ll be hanging out before I make my way to the Gnome territory, so if you’re in the area, I’d be happy to see you!

-Richter (Kyouji)”

Tapping reply, a virtual keyboard materialized and Sinon began typing out a response.

“Hey Richter,

I’ll be there! I’ll see you at around 4:00, if that’s okay!

-Sinon”

Closing her window, she began walking toward her destination, prepping to take off when she got another blip on her HUD. It was Richter again.

“ _That was fast,”_ she idly thought to herself.

“Alright, see you then! :)

-Richter”

Closing the window once again, she broke into a light jog and jumped off a nearby overhang whilst flexing her shoulder blades. As she fell, her translucent wings caught on the air as it rushed past and she took flight, willing her wings to carry her forward at top speed. She had learned quite recently how to control her flight without the need for a flight controller, and she was still getting used to it. But, not having to use a flight controller was a huge relief, and she was very thankful to Richter for showing her how to rid herself of it. Zooming forward, she flew over the landscape towards the looming city.

Landing outside of the Furry Flagon, she stumbled a little bit touching down, but she picked herself up before she could run into everyone. Looking around, the sight of a living, thriving community of NPC’s and human players hadn’t ceased to amaze her. She had watched videos about SAO and the level of depth paled in comparison. Before she got too distracted, she opened the door to the Furry Flagon and scanned the room, looking for her friend. In the corner sat a brown-haired, young-looking Sylph boy, clad in a motley green cloak, studded leather chest plate, dark green padded pants, and knee-high adventurer’s boots. Seeing as Sinon had walked in, the boy waved her over to the table, and Sinon recognized the boy as Richter. As she walked over, Richter’s face lit up with a smile and she couldn’t help returning the smile. Sitting down, she unslung her bow and set it gently on the table, moving Richter’s rapier aside with it. Waving over a waitress, she placed her order for a stein of strawberry fizz and faced Richter.

“So, what brings you to little old Freelia?” Sinon asked.

“Ah, I’m on a courier mission. One of the councilmen of Swilvane, our capital, needed a message relayed to the gnomes. I figured that since Freelia is kind of on the way, I’d stop by and say hi! I haven’t seen you for like, two weeks now,” Richter explained.

“Ah, gotcha. How’d you come to accept a quest like that, right from a councilman? That’s pretty impressive if you ask me.”

Richter’s cheeks flushed slightly and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Ah, it wasn’t really anything special. I just so happened to be around when the guy posted it onto the job board. He didn’t get the chance to post it, I kinda just tapped him on the shoulder as he pulled out the paper.”

Just then, a waitress came by with a glass stein full of a bubbly red liquid, and Sinon smiled at the waitress and thanked her.  
  


“Hey, that’s pretty lucky. How much are you getting paid?” Sinon asked as she took a sip of her drink.

“100,000.”

Sinon’s hand went to cover her mouth as she choked on her drink a little. “You’re kidding.”

Richter chuckled and leaned back in his chair. “Nope! Whatever’s in this envelope is pretty sensitive information, apparently. Not only that, I gotta get this there by sundown tomorrow.”

“Sheesh, you should probably get going pretty soon, then.”  
  


“Yeah, yeah, I know. That’s why I didn’t order anything. I just stopped in to say hi, since you were in the area.”

“Well in that case, hi, I guess,” Sinon joked, smiling at Richter, who flushed pink and laughed in return.

“So, what’s new with you? Like I said, we haven’t talked in a little while, so what’s up?

Sinon rubbed her chin thoughtfully and looked to the ceiling. “Nothing much, really. I’m saving for some new armor, so I’ve been doing some minor cash quests to make some easy money so I don’t lose half my health trying to fight literally anything. Although, I did get basically mugged earlier.”  
  
“I would ask if you’re alright, but seeing as you’re sitting in front of me, that kind of answers my question,” Richter said lightheartedly. “What happened?”

Sinon took a draft of her drink before she told Richter what had happened. What had started as a collection quest went to a staged ambush. “The only reason why I’m still alive now is because some guy named Kirito ran in and saved me last minute. The girl I was fighting had used some kind of gravity spell on me and I couldn’t move, and he flew in from who knows where and started to fight her. He was super strong! He blew her backward just from his sword swing breaking the sound barrier! After that, the girl just up and ran away.”  
  


“Jeez, that’s insane! I think I’ve heard of a sword skill that can do that, but I didn’t think anyone could actually learn it.”

“Yeah, I know, right?! Anyways, after that I was super low on health, so he went over to me and gave me a potion and I kinda just rested on him for a little bit,” Sinon said as she blushed slightly pink from the memory. “But when he asked my name, I kinda got defensive and embarrassed and just ran away,” Sinon sheepishly admitted.

“Defensive? What’s with that?”

“Probably poor word choice on my part, but I just don’t take very well to people I don’t really know. I guess cold is a better word? But that’s kinda loose.”

Richter raised an eyebrow at her and smiled gently. “I don’t know, when I first met you, I thought you wanted to throw me out of the train car we were in.”

“Did… Did I really give off that vibe?”  
  


“Kinda, yeah. I was kinda scared to talk to you again the next day, but I figured I had nothing left to lose, so…”

“I’m not THAT scary,” Sinon pouted.

“To be fair, that was three years ago, and you know how much of a wuss I was back then.”

“Back then?” Sinon teased with a raised eyebrow.

“Hey, I’ve gotten better!”

“Uh-huh, yeah, sure. Anyways, don’t you have to be going to Gnome territory? I thought you said that you had to leave like, 20 minutes ago.”

Checking the time on his HUD, Richter realized what time it actually was. “Shoot, you’re right. Well, in any case, thanks for chatting, and I’m glad you’re okay! Just be careful the next time you go out, alright? I don’t wanna lose you. I’m still waiting on an answer, after all!”

“It’s not a problem, and of course, but I’d rather you not talk about that, especially considering our circumstances for a while here…”

Richter smiled apologetically. “O-of course, Sinon-san, I was just making a joke,” Richter said, trailing off.

“It’s fine, I’d just rather not think about it for a little bit until we figure things out here.”

“Of course. Well, I’m out of here. See ya around, Sinon-san!” Richter said as he began to take off, waving as he floated into the sky.

“See you!”

The truth was, Richter had confessed his feelings for her a couple of days prior to the whole incident happening. Overwhelmed at someone actually having feelings for her, she backpedaled and said that she wanted time to think about her answer, as she had never really thought about any romantic connections. She had set a self deadline for telling him, but the ALO incident happened before that day came. Considering that her anxiety and stress went through the roof as a result of being shoved into this death game, thinking about romance was currently the last thing on her mind, and she had communicated that clearly to the waiting boy. As a result, the answer is still in the works.

After watching Richter fly off, she began to mull over how she’d fill up the rest of her day. Looking around, she realized there wasn’t really much to do alone. She had almost decided to stay at an inn and play a video game as she’d normally do at home but then realized the sad irony behind that thought. Glancing at her map, she settled on going to the library and doing some research on where the pre-bosses for the race bosses were. With that, she flexed her wings and flew to the other side of town, where she did fruitless research until the sun went down. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Yes, I realize it's been (however many months since July) since my last update, but here's the next chapter. I'll try to be a bit more on top of this, as I still really wanna finish this! Thanks for waiting, those who actually read this, and I hope you enjoyed it! 
> 
> ~Brightwolf


End file.
